East Campus Housing on track to open in fall

This is the second in a series of articles about campus construction projects.

Some would say the coolest thing about the next buildings to open in the East Campus Housing Project – the Chenango Champlain Collegiate Center, and Delaware, Endicott and Broome halls – are the drinking fountains that include a water bottle station that makes it easy to fill water bottles (no splashing involved). Others would say it’s the large room in the collegiate center that can be divided into six rooms and also includes a stage for the Dickinson Community Players. Yet others would say it’s the built-in recyclable centers.

It seems there’s something for everyone in these soon-to-be-opened buildings that will meet LEED standards for energy and water efficiency, indoor environmental quality and innovative design.

When the three residence halls and the collegiate center open for fall 2011, the new Newing College will be complete, the remaining halls in the old Newing College will be demolished and construction will have started on the new Dickinson Community residence halls, slated to open in 2013.

This transformation of the east side of campus would seem daunting to most. But at Binghamton, using a “construction manager at risk” (CMR) method has kept the project on track both money- and time-wise. “We’re one of the first to pursue this methodology in working with the Dormitory Authority,” said Lawrence Roma, associate vice president for facilities management. “We basically reach out to a construction manager (in this case, LeChase Construction, LLC), and they become our general contractor and manage the bids and the entire project.

“They are able to pre-qualify bidders and they reach out to solicit qualified bidders to get us the best price possible,” Roma added. “There are probably two dozen subcontracts on this project and they individually bid each one.”

The risk to the CMR is that they have to estimate the entire project, and with the Dormitory Authority, the University hires an independent estimator. The two estimates are compared and reconciled and the contractor (LeChase) must guarantee to meet that estimate. The benefits of this come back to the campus, said Roma. “Basically, we pay the CMR a fee to provide this service to us, and any savings come back to the University. It’s a win-win situation.”

The timeline and phasing of the project are also key, said Vice President for Administration James Van Voorst. “We saw an opportunity to do all of this within a tight timeframe because it’s more cost effective,” he said. “We did this purposely with our eyes open, and at the same time took great pains to meet the needs of current and future students.

“Our goal is to provide and extend the housing options available to students and, in this case, to provide community spaces in line with the history, feel and tradition of the Newing and Dickinson communities,” he said.

“In the collegiate center, for example, each community will have its own identity, but also the ability to come together,” Van Voorst said. “It’s a welcoming place that students can relate to.”

In addition, when the project is completed, the added beds in the two communities will allow the University to house more students, said Van Voorst.

The importance of the project to the overall experience and quality of life for Binghamton University students were underscored by Rene Coderre, consultant for new projects for Residential Life, and Suzanne Howell, director of Residential Life, during a recent tour of the collegiate center and Delaware Hall.

Highlights include:

The Chenango Champlain Collegiate Center
• Each community will have its own entrance (Newing on the left, Dickinson on the right), and its own color scheme.
• The academic center, accessible from both sides, includes seminar rooms for tutoring, benches and computers, tables with data/power and a printer room.
• The Newing side includes a new Broome Closet, a soundproof practice room.
• The Dickinson side includes space for the CoRE (computers, robotics and engineering) special-interest housing module.
• The large multipurpose room that includes a stage for the Dickinson Community Players can be divided into six smaller spaces as needed – each with multimedia capabilities − and includes ramp access to the stage.
• There will be a shared kitchen and serving area, with separate dining rooms that will each accommodate about 400 people in varied style seating. A connecting, outside patio can be accessed from both dining rooms.
• The Kosher Kitchen has two separate kitchens in the building, separated from the main kitchen.
• The kitchen will include several stations: deli, pizza (with a wall oven), pasta, expeditions (Mongolian Wok), entrees, beverages, granary, international, soup/salad bar, grill.
• The common dish room includes a more efficient conveyor system that can move 300 trays at a time into the cleaning area.
• Health Services will have a room on each side for outreach efforts and programming.
• Each side has a meeting room, and offices and storage for its hall government, as well as for its faculty master.
• There is a gas fireplace in the large Dickinson lounge.
• A large table being built from local trees will be the centerpiece of the large Newing lounge.
• There will be a refurbished, working phone booth on the Newing side, salvaged from one of the former Newing buildings.
• There are elevators and meeting rooms on each side.
• Skylights provide natural lighting.

Delaware Hall (also representative of Endicott and Broome halls)
• The co-rec field will be located between the Chenango Champlain Collegiate Center and Delaware Hall, where construction trailers currently sit. The field will have tiered seating.
• Each building will have a great room and kitchen, floor lounges on each floor, as well as a laundry room and laundry lounge. Students will be able to access the eSuds system to monitor when their clothes are done via their computer.
• Each building is constructed with neighborhood-style rooms/bathrooms, with three double rooms per bathroom. Students will exit their rooms to access the bathrooms.
• There are a few larger rooms in each building, known as hotel doubles or hotel triples, that have their own bathrooms.
• To match the exterior design of Bingham Hall, there are some fake windows on the outside of the newest buildings.
• The buildings are six stories high, but the sixth floor houses mechanical systems, not students.